Norman Mailer could throw a punch, but as a writer he bobbed and weaved around his Jewishness.

11/14/2007

Thane Rosenbaum

Special To The Jewish Week

One virtue of the novel is that fictional characters often outlive the novelist who created them. Actually, that’s one of the reasons why some people give up their day jobs to tell stories instead. Aside from having children, fiction writing is one of the best ways to leave evidence of oneself. And, in some cases — think Atticus Finch, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Tom Sawyer — it can even lead to immortality.